Thomas Breen photo
Clinton supporters watching debate at Cask Republic.
“Shut up,” someone at the front of the room shouted with exasperation as Donald Trump defended his self-proclaimed (and thoroughly fictional) early opposition to the Iraq War.
“No, keep talking,” the person sitting next to him responded with a smile. “This is good for us to hear!”
Such was the prevailing attitude on Monday night in a crowded side room at Cask Republic on Crown Street, where dozens of New Haveners gathered to laugh and cheer and grimace as they watched the first presidential debate between candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Organized by the New Haven chapter of Hillary for America (HFA), the debate watch party brought together over 60 local Clinton supporters who found themselves as responsive to their deeply felt revulsion for Republican Trump as they were to their support for the Democratic nominee.
Volunteer Oliphant.
The evening’s goal: Not just to share in an historical moment in American politics. But to charge up the base to help get out the Democratic vote once the cameras die down.
“There is a lot of enthusiasm in this city for Hillary Clinton,” HFA volunteer Melody Oliphant said as she helped prepare the small room for what would prove to be a capacity crowd. “And, with tonight’s debate watch party, we’re hoping to further galvanize that support, to channel it into phone banking and voter registration and out-of-state campaigning.”
Oliphant, a 24-year-old scientist who moved to New Haven a year ago to work as a post graduate research associate in neurodevelopmental genetics at the Yale School of Medicine, was one of the debate watch party’s chief organizers, along with Democratic Party Ward 26 Co-chair Amy Marx, Yale undergraduate Dasia Moore, and Upper Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen, Jr.
In addition to Monday night’s watch party, the group announced that it will hosting two phone banking sessions this upcoming week out of the new local Clinton campaign office at 50 Fitch Street in Westville; and volunteers will travel up to New Hampshire this Sunday for a canvassing and campaigning road trip.
As the start of the debate approached, Oliphant expressed equal parts admiration for Clinton and wariness of Trump as she helped pin a red-and-white HILLARY banner beneath one of the room’s two television screens.
“I think that she’s very qualified to be president and that she’s a great role model,” she said. “But I’m anxious to see how this first debate goes, because sometimes it’s difficult to disentangle the misogyny from some of the criticisms leveled against her.”
Fred Tucker.
Fred Tucker, 69, a retired BlueCross BlueShield employee who now spends his time taking physics classes at Gateway, echoed Oliphant’s concerns as he reflected on Trump’s mixed message to minority voters.
“He goes to black churches, but all he talks about is giving police more power,” he said. “He’s speaking in a coded language, but people know what he means. I hope Hillary Clinton makes him look like a fool tonight, because she’s a lot smarter than him.”
And, as anticipated, the debate itself offered Oliphant, Tucker, and just about all of the Clinton supporters in attendance at Cask Republic on Monday night plenty of opportunities to applaud and jeer.
Chips and presidential bingo.
Amid tables stacked with potato chips, empty beer glasses, Rosa DeLauro buttons and debate bingo cards, the crowd booed and scoffed as Trump accused Clinton of spending her entire life fighting ISIS. They cheered as the Secretary demanded equal pay for equal work, and laughed as she criticized economic policy that privileges financial transactions over productive labor as “Trumped up trickle down.”
Even debate moderator Lester Holt received a fair amount of love from the audience.
“Yay journalism!” a man exclaimed with his hands in the air as Holt asked Trump early in the debate to return from a tirade against NAFTA to the question of how he would allocate government spending to improve the economic standing of the American middle class.
Drinks and signing up to volunteer.
After the debate had ended, the beers finished, and the bingo cards discarded, Oliphant reflected on the difficulty of watching a debate with so many half-truths and lies.
“You really had to have a second-screen in your hand as you watched,” she said, “keeping one eye on the debate, and one eye on the fact checker websites. Donald just lives in his own reality.” For the few dozen New Haveners who showed up at Cask Republic on Monday night, the Donald’s distorted reality was as strong a motivation as any to reaffirm their support for Hillary Clinton.
Within minutes after the debate began, I realized that, aside from tossing personal insults at each other, both Trump and Clinton mostly were quoting memorized passages from the Democratic and Republican national party platforms. I already had endured enough self-punishment by reading through both platforms days earlier, which simply confirmed my belief that both parties have completely lost touch with voters and with the real world in which most of us live.
So after 20 minutes—I turned off the TV.